I Guess That Means I’m In

A week or so ago, the rumor mill suggested Ducati was on the verge of releasing an updated Multistrada 950. Having thoroughly enjoyed my time with the bike this summer my response was: “Add cruise control and I’m in.” At EICMA this week the Italian manufacturer made my wish come true.

Ducati released a flood of updated or tweaked models this week, with the psychotic Panigale V4R grabbing most moto headlines. However, news on the bike I cared about – the Multistrada 950 – was buried amid a dizzying 12 updated model announcements, receiving just one paragraph from Ducati’s media release. Only one official photo of the bike was released, the one you see below:

The single official photo in Ducati’s media release

Every other pic for this article was taken by myself at EICMA, thereby vindicating my having ridden 1,000 miles to attend the show. I find it mildly distressing that Ducati doesn’t seem to care about its bikes as much as I do. Though, to be fair, the update is pretty minimal. It really isn’t much more than the addition of cruise control.

Well, that’s not entirely true. The Multistrada 950 S also gets the sinister-sounding “Ducati Skyhook Suspension” (also known as an active suspension outside of marketing speak), quickshifter, full LED lighting, an obligatory TFT display with smartphone connectivity, and backlit switchgear. Its design has been tweaked oh so slightly, and it gets cornering ABS.

2019 Ducati Multistrada 950 S

“Ducati has achieved a striking degree of maturity,” said Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali at the company’s World Premiere event on Sunday. “It is a global flag bearer of some of the best aspects of ‘Made in Italy’ excellence.”

Made in Italy excellence. Uhm… sure. Despite my inability to say that phrase without laughing, I remain a very big fan of the Multistrada 950. Bikes like the new Kawasaki Versys 1000 have turned my eye somewhat, and cost (which has yet to be revealed) will have an effect on my enthusiasm, but this moto is still toward the top of my What I Want list.